October 5, 2017

Subscribe

After beginning as a small test in Portugal in September, Instagram this week is beginning to roll out a feature that lets you automatically share the same Instagram Story to your Facebook Story with the tap of a button. TechCrunch spotted the cross-platform Story syncing, and Instagram parent company Facebook subsequently confirmed the feature’s rollout will be coming to all United States users this week.

Instagram Stories has grown to become a big success for the company in the 14 months since it launched, with 250 million users interacting with Stories every day as of last June. In April, Instagram Stories surpassed rival Snapchat in terms of daily active users. The feature is the same across platforms, allowing you to post a picture or a video that disappears after 24 hours.

Image via TechCrunch

“You now have the option to share your Instagram Stories to your Facebook Stories. We’re always working to make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch.

While Stories on Instagram have been a hit, Facebook’s launch of its own Stories tab has been less successful, with many users pointing out that little to none of their friends share on the platform. Likely because of this, Facebook soon after the feature’s launch began populating the Stories tab with grayed-out profile pictures of friends so this section of the app wouldn’t be as empty.

With the new update, Facebook Stories should see an uptick in user engagement since it’ll be easier than ever to share a quick picture or video Story from Instagram, without having to open Facebook. For now, however, you won’t be able post to Instagram Stories from Facebook Stories, but the company “hasn’t ruled out” introducing such an update in the future.

Besides its main app and Instagram, Facebook has also added disappearing Story-like abilities into Messenger and WhatsApp.